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Wednesday, 26 July 2017

The Great Outdoors

When the heck did it become July 26th? Summer seems to be zooming by and I'd be hard pressed to say how I've been spending my time. Today, I awoke to a cool, drizzly morning. When I got dressed, I put on shorts, and a long sleeved top. It just felt too chilly for short sleeves. After the light rain passed over, I got outside to do a little weeding in my vegetable garden and a perennial bed. My goal has been to dig out the "baby" trees that have shown up where they shouldn't be. Many of these are walnut trees, no doubt planted by squirrels. The others are what I call Manitoba maples. Yesterday I got started on some and had to call on my husband because they were just too difficult to dig out. Well, naturally a small job became a big job and after much cutting, lopping, digging, and loading up of the Gorilla cart (three times) and dumping in the burn pile, most trees were gone. They had grown up in and around a giant old mock orange and some other shrubs.

I set my sights on smaller trees that had to go. I didn't start without my two best friends:

-gardening gloves and bug spray!

I managed to get rid of a few more, although there was one that I must confess I just cut off close to the bottom. I never would have been able to dig it out without a complete massacre of all plants and shrubs around it. I also tackled some basic weeding.

With those jobs being done, I moved on to the next one. It is an apple year with our old apple tree which only produces every two years. Someone else is also aware that it is an apple year.

Now, don't get me wrong, they can eat as many apples as they want. We don't use them as they are too tiny, sour, and insect ridden for us. However, they don't stop at apples. They enjoy beans, peas, and parsley.

They apples need to be raked up so that the grass can be properly cut. As well, they quickly rot and attract wasps. I got my rake and tackled the job.

The apples get raked into piles.

Then, the apples are scooped up and loaded into the Gorilla cart (what would we do without that thing??) and pulled by the lawn mower and dumped elsewhere. This process will continue several times throughout the summer until the apples are done dropping from the tree.

I did stop to admire my window boxes. They are doing well now, filling in nicely.

I really like creeping jenny in window boxes and urns. It makes them look so feminine and pretty.

Did I mention how much I love crocosmia? It is the reedy looking plant with the red flowers.

I came in to have a snack (and to bandage up a blister that I still managed to get even though I was wearing gloves), and then naturally it started to rain. So I did not get the raked apples loaded up into the cart yet, but they'll certainly be waiting for me when the rain does eventually end.

37 comments:

Jenn, Your cat made me laugh. :):) Honey, you have my sympathy on your blister...that just makes me mad to wear gloves and still get blistered. :) I had my gloves on today also. Pulling weed and digging up our gardening rocks we used in a border once. We got to pulling weeds and decided to dig the whole area out and rework it. OMG lots of work. Sounds like to you work like crazy today also. I used bug spray too. I hate getting bitten by mosquitoes and they are out . Blessings to you honey. xoxo, Susie

Ah rain - the gardener's best friend! I had a small window of time and dry weather yesterday so cleared, cleaned and re-planted an Iris bed, took the excess to my huge compost heap at the allotment and picked courgettes, French beans, basil, salad, strawberries and dahlias. My boots were caked with mud so I changed into sandals for driving, left my boots at home and ended up having to wash feet and sandals under the tap. An English summer - except until a couple of weeks ago we'd had no noticeable rain since June 2016! Keep up the good work Jenn - your garden looks marvellous.

Thanks! The lawn mower just ends up squishing them with the tires, or chopping them up into bits which then rot. I could happy get rid of this tree and replace it with something else, but husband is sentimental (and he doesn't do the raking!).

Love Scooter! And bunnies but I know what you mean about the other veggies. Rick uses that transparent netting and it really helps. The garden looks great but the apples reminded me of the trees we had when I was a kid -- about six of them, sour inedible apples that had to be raked. Ah, yes...

Your place looks amazing! One good thing about the rain is how green it looks everywhere. That's it. A little more sun would be nice. It's downright depressing how cloudy and cool it is. It's a cat's life, I tell you. We've worked hard around the house since we moved here and my cats have been lying around like that throughout it all. Not a care in the world!

That's nice that they settled so well into your new home. I hear you about depressing. It rained again through the night last night, but the sun seems to be making an appearance right now. Fingers crossed.

Oh my gawd... my husband kept saying, "We should make cider!!" but then thought he should research how to build his own cider press blah blah blah. Nothing can be easy. Honestly, I don't think I could drink it, knowing how buggy and wormy the apples are. Shudder!!

Your garden is stunning. I never tire of the pictures and I pretend that I am there amongst the lovely precipitation. Ahhhh, I can feel the mist on my face and my hair is looking very Janice Joplin as is wont to do when touched by moisture.

I am desperately searching for a life pause button! I like the crocosmia too& it seems that it's been a good year everywhere for them (yeah). Cute bunnies, bad bunnies also in abundance this year. It's been raining all morning here so I had no chance to go out into the garden before work :( All the rain is making for a horrible mosquitoes problem & they are already testing positive for West Nile :( ... let's hope for a drier weekend. Mary-Lou =^..^=

I see we have the same outdoor 'friends' - I also resort to a bug net over my head, if they are particularly awful. I have a similar, but smaller, cart and I LOVE it! I have been eyeing a weed outbreak in the parts of the garden I missed the last time - it's going on The List.

I also claim the rear tine rototiller as one of my best friends. I could care less about cars, but don't mess with my rototiller! I've not used a bug net, but we actually have an old one that my husband had for tree planting back in his younger days. A friend of mine who has issues with bug spray actually had shirts and pants that her kids wore, rather than using bug spray on them. Hope you keep ticking things of "The List"!

Hi Jenn :) Your cat is adorable...they just don't care about what annoys us do they? I love the rabbit photo! We had rain and 4 degrees this morning, what the heck? Will all my tomatoes die??? I hope not. I'm also in shock...it's nearly August and we haven't been able to swim in the lake yet because it's been too cold! Let's hope for a long hot fall!

That's a busy day!!! I have a bunch of volunteer trees coming up as well that I need to deal with but can't until the season is over. For now I just cut them off at the base, but as you know they are back in no time. Your property looks great!!

We just returned from a trip to our VA house and I can identify with the blisters even though I too was wearing gloves while weeding and hoeing a stubborn weed patch. We have bunnies there too and saw a couple. Oddly enough, they were never a nuisance when we had a vegetable garden. We also have some fruit trees that are dropping peaches and apples, but we left them on the ground as they are in the far yard. Hopefully birds will enjoy them.

About Me

I started blogging because I started reading people's blogs and really enjoyed them. I have always been a writer. I've kept a journal since I was a teenager (which was quite some time ago!), I wrote stories as a child, and I think things through by writing them down and getting them out of my brain. At the moment I blog about my life without getting too personal. I get a little thrill when someone leaves a comment, so I try to comment on other people's blogs as well. So... go ahead... make my day.

About Me

I am a wife and mother of a twenty-one year-old and a seventeen-year-old living in rural Ontario, Canada. Join me in my journey through gardening, motherhood, living in a century-plus home, surviving husband projects (give me strength), and working full time. I love reading, nature, laughing, small furry animals, and a good cup of coffee on the porch (or perhaps a glass of red wine depending on the day!).